1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to information retrieval via a computer network and, more specifically, to a software system that provides selected information from a host computer to a remote user via a computer network and debits the user's account balance.
2. Description of the Related Art
A consumer may use a debit card to purchase goods or services from a provider. To purchase goods or services, the consumer presents the card to the provider or provides other information to allow the provider to verify the authenticity of the card and that the consumer has a sufficient account balance to cover their purchase price. If the provider determines that the account balance is sufficient, the provider debits the account balance by the purchase price. Debit cards are commonly used to pay for retail goods of all types, telephone calls, highway tolls, mass transit fares, gasoline, restaurant meals, and other products and services.
In many instances the card itself is essentially non-functional and merely serves as a token to remind the consumer of the existence of the account. Nevertheless, many debit cards include an electronically readable memory medium in which a serial number is stored. The memory medium may be a magnetic stripe or a semiconductor memory. A card having a semiconductor memory may also include a microprocessor or similar means for controlling the transfer of information to and from the card. Such a card is commonly known as a smart-card. When a debit card having a memory medium is used to purchase goods or services, a machine reads the serial number or other information stored on the card to allow it to verify the authenticity of the card. To provide additional security against fraudulent use, the machine may require the user to enter a personal identification number (PIN).
A distinction may be drawn between the type of debit card that is used merely as a security and convenience mechanism to access an account that exists independently of the card, such as automatic teller machine (ATM) cards and other bank-issued debit cards, and the type of debit card that has an initial value representing a certain monetary amount that the consumer has paid to a provider or third-party reseller of certain goods or services in exchange for the card. The latter type of card is commonly referred to as a pre-paid debit card because the consumer is essentially pre-paying for the goods or services when the consumer purchases the card. Prior to or at the time the card is sold, the provider or reseller records the pre-payment in an account corresponding to that consumer or at least to that card.
The use of debit cards to pay for telephone calls has spawned a cottage industry. Such debit cards are sometimes referred to as pre-paid calling cards. Although a telephone company may issue such cards itself, it is becoming increasingly common for a reseller to purchase services in the form of an amount of calling time from one or more telephone companies and issue its own pre-paid calling cards to consumers under its own brand name. Although magnetic stripe cards and smart-cards may be used to pay for telephone calls, pre-paid calling cards more commonly include nothing more functional than a printed telephone number and access code. To make a telephone call using the card, the user dials the telephone number. A computer at the reseller's site answers the call and provides automated voice prompts to the user. The computer verifies the authenticity of the access code, which the user enters using the telephone keypad. If the computer verifies that the card is authentic and that the user's account balance is greater than zero, the system prompts the user to dial the number of the party to be called and completes the connection through the public telephone network. Security methods of the type used as fraud safeguards for ATM cards and credit cards, such as the requirement that the user enter a PIN, are generally unnecessary because the monetary value of the account balance is typically sufficiently low to expose the owner of the card to minimal loss in the event of fraud or theft. Certain resellers provide a service known as card reactivation that allows a user to increase the balance of their existing account by paying an additional amount. Nevertheless, pre-paid calling cards are more often considered disposable, and users commonly dispose of them rather than reactivate them when only a few cents worth of calling time remains in the account. Reselling such pre-paid calling cards is extremely lucrative because, in addition to the profits that volume calling time purchases and least-cost routing techniques realize for the reseller, the reseller may realize additional profit from the few cents of remaining calling time that often goes unused when the card is disposed of.
Pre-paid telephone debit cards have been used to purchase services other than telephone calling time. For example, service providers have provided automated voice messages informing callers of movie theater schedules.
In a manner analogous to the purchase of pre-paid telephone calling time, computer users may purchase pre-paid computing time from a computer service provider. For example, the computing departments of certain universities sell pre-paid computing time to students and other users who require use of the university's computer systems. A computer user may remotely access a university's host computer by dialing a telephone number and, when the connection is completed, providing a user name and a password. The user's remote computer, operating under control of suitable software, typically controls the dialing and entry of a password automatically without user intervention. If the host computer verifies the authenticity of the user name and password, it allows the user to control further operations from the remote computer. The host computer debits the computing time or connection time from the user's account balance. If the account balance is depleted, the host computer refuses the user's attempts to connect.
The Internet is a global computer super-network consisting of numerous sub-networks. The majority of users connect their computers to the Internet indirectly via a standard analog telephone connection or a digital services connection to an Internet service provider (ISP), whose computer is more directly connected to the Internet or one of its sub-networks. The user typically accesses the ISP computer in the same manner as described above with respect to computer service providers in general. The ISP typically bills its subscribers on a monthly basis for the connection time the subscriber has used.
An ISP typically provides free of additional charge to its subscribers the communication software that the subscriber's computer executes to connect to the ISP host computer. The communication software is typically provided on a floppy disk or a CD-ROM. Certain ISPs have provided such a floppy disk and a password free of charge that enable a user to connect to the ISP computer on a trial basis for a limited amount of time, during which the user can decide whether to subscribe to the ISP's service. If the user has not subscribed by the time the trial period ends, the ISP computer refuses any further attempts by the user to connect using the trial software.
The World Wide Web is a distributed hypermedia system in which multimedia information, such as combinations of text, still or moving images, and sound, is transferred via the Internet in accordance with the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). A software product known as a browser, executing on a user's computer, is used to retrieve the information and cause the user's computer to display it. An ISP may provide a browser to its subscribers that is integrated with the communication software. The Internet is a client-server system in which the user's remote computer operating under control of the browser constitutes a client platform that requests hypertext documents, and the host computer operating under control of its own software constitutes a server platform that provides the documents in response to the client's requests. Although, as noted above, the transferred documents may represent information of various media other than text, the term "hypertext" remains more popular than hypermedia to refer to the content of such documents. The prefix "hyper" refers to the embedding of links (hyperlinks) in a hypertext document that point to other hypertext documents or resources available on the World Wide Web. Using a mouse or similar point-and-click input device, a user can activate a hyperlink that the browser associates with a specific object or area of the document then-displayed on the user's computer screen. The browser interprets visual attributes of the document for display on the screen and interprets the effect of hyperlinks in accordance with the source language of the document, which is most commonly the hypertext mark-up language (HTML). In response to activation of a hyperlink, the client requests the information referenced by the hyperlink and displays it when it receives it from the server. The location or address at which a document is stored on the World Wide Web is described by a uniform resource locator (URL). The HTML code that defines a hyperlink includes a reference to a URL.
A user may purchase goods or services via the Internet. The term "electronic commerce" is commonly used to refer to such transactions. Merchants may provide information and offers regarding their products in the form of hypertext documents that they publish on the World Wide Web. A user may pay for a purchase by entering credit card information or other account-identifying information on a hypertext form and transmitting it to the merchant's server. The product may be shipped to the user by conventional means or it may be delivered electronically via the Internet itself. Software, stock photographs, and other products sold in digital form may be transmitted directly to the user's computer in exchange for payment.
It has been suggested that smart-cards be used to pay for purchases made via the Internet. A product referred to as a smart-disk has been used to adapt a floppy disk drive to communicate with a smart-card. It has also been suggested to simply include a smart-card "drive" as a computer peripheral in addition to a conventional floppy disk drive or CD-ROM drive to facilitate electronic commerce.
Many users of the World Wide Web (referred to hereinafter as the "Web") would prefer not to spend their time searching the Web for products they might be interested in purchasing. Searching the Web is inefficient because the user remains connected to the ISP and may continue to incur charges for the connection time. Although certain ISPs have offered a flat-rate plan in which a user receives a bill for a fixed amount each month regardless of the connection time, many people who would otherwise be interested in purchasing products via the Internet do not do so. Some people may be resistant to becoming sufficiently familiar with the use of the browser software needed to search the Web and the arcane procedures for installing new software in their computer. Others may prefer shopping by conventional non-electronic methods, because they believe the likelihood of finding on the Internet the product or service they seek is small in relation to the time spent searching. Moreover, many people are resistant to providing credit card information via the Internet for fear that the information will be intercepted by others and used fraudulently. These needs are clearly felt in the art and are satisfied by the present invention in the manner described below.